I wonder how much of The Verdict was completed before Dilla passed and if that project will ever see light. Frank Nitty, of Frank-n-Dank announced that they are officially releasing 48HRS, their shelved MCA album, produced entirely by Dilla, soon. Anything Dilla created while he was alive is good to go for me - - posthumous releases, not so much.

DX: Just a couple more questions. After this album drops, what’s next for you?Guilty Simpson: After this record drops, I’m doing another Stones Throw record with these cats called Quakers. This guy, Katalyst, he’s based out of Australia right now, and the other guy in Quakers, his name is Geoff Barrow, he’s one of the guys that founded Portishead, he’s one of the members of Portishead. Those two are gonna produce the last of what’s left of my new music, and I’m getting crazy once again, I’m already in the process of working on that. I’m working on my first batch now, so I’m between like six and ten songs now, and I’m sending that out...The next thing for me is always staying creative, I’ll relax when I’m done.

I wonder how much of The Verdict was completed before Dilla passed and if that project will ever see light.

I asked Guilty on Twitter this same question - - his reply is as follows:

"about 7-8 songs"Take notice"" make it fast"and some songs that haven't been found. I hope they find them tho."

- I proceeded to inquire about "Stress" and "Man's World" - tracks Dilla also produced around the time The Verdict was formulating - and why he didn't mention them as tracks for the album.

He said, "the samples on those 2 couldn't get cleared for an album. I don't know, I remember recording them but haven't heard them"

- I understand the mastering issues, but him saying he hasn't "heard them" threw me off a bit. Other than them having been leaked by a third party, I don't know how he could have recorded these tracks and not even listened to them.

Also, not sure if this has been covered, I don't think it has, but Guilty, on "Cali Hills," made reference to recording over Dilla's "Cold Steel" beat before Phat Kat got it. Does anyone know what those vocals might have turned into?

He said, "the samples on those 2 couldn't get cleared for an album. I don't know, I remember recording them but haven't heard them"

- I understand the mastering issues, but him saying he hasn't "heard them" threw me off a bit. Other than them having been leaked by a third party, I don't know how he could have recorded these tracks and not even listened to them.

He said, "the samples on those 2 couldn't get cleared for an album. I don't know, I remember recording them but haven't heard them"

- I understand the mastering issues, but him saying he hasn't "heard them" threw me off a bit. Other than them having been leaked by a third party, I don't know how he could have recorded these tracks and not even listened to them.

the samples not getting cleared is understandable. one is james brown the most frequently sampled artist of all time, besides maybe etta james. and the other is Elleanor Rigby by the damn Beatles.

as far as not ever hearing them, it's either a legal issue, or like a lot of rappers, he wasn't around for the mixing. Most rappers lay down vocal tracks in the booth, redo takes the engineer wants them to retake, and then bounce so the engineer can get to work mixing it. Either way it sucks because both those tracks are fire, specially stess.